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Sirat Rasoul Allah

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4- The Helpers 

When they reached Medina they spoke of the apostle of Allah and invited their people to accept Islam, so that acquaintance with it spread until there was not one among the dwellings of all their families in which the name of the apostle of Allah had not been spoken. The converts in Medina became known as the Helpers.

The next year [AD 621], when the season of pilgrimage came again, twelve men of the Helpers met the apostle at the hill of al-Aqaba; this is called the meeting of 'the first hill'. 'We paid homage to the apostle of Allah after the unmilitant manner of women - this happened before war was made incumbent upon us. We pledged that we should not associate other gods with Allah, nor steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill our female children, nor tell lies, nor disobey what was right. If we fulfil these conditions paradise is to be ours; if we transgress and suffer punishment in this world, it will be an expiation; but if our sin remains concealed till the day of resurrection, the affair rests with Allah to punnish or forgive.'

When the men left, the apostle of Allah sent Musab with them to read the Koran to them, to teach them Islam, and to give them.

instruction in religion; therefore Musab was known in Medina , as 'The Reader'.

One day Musab went out with Asad, one of the Helpers of 'the first hill', and they entered an orchard and sat down near a well called Maraq, where several men who had made profession of Islam gathered around them. The princes of the Banu Abdul‑Ashhal at that time were Sad b. Muadh, a cousin of Asad, and Usayd b. Hudayr, both of them idolaters like the rest of their people. They heard of the arrival of Asad and Musab, and Sad said to Usayd, 'Go to these two men who have come here to fool the weakminded among our people! Drive them away and forbid them to approach our dwellings. If Asad were not one of my kinsmen, I would have spared you this errand, but he is my cousin and I prefer to avoid him on this subject.' Accordingly Usayd took a sword and went to them; and when Asad saw him he said to Musab, 'This is the prince of his tribe. Show him the truth of Allah!' Musab replied, 'If he sits down I shall speak to him.' But Usayd remained standing in front of them, casting insults, saying, 'What has brought you here? Will you mislead the weakminded among our people? Leave us if you value your lives!' Musab replied, 'Sit down and listen; and if you are pleased with what you hear, accept it, but if you are displeased, that will put an end to the matter!' Saying, 'You have spoken well', and planting his sword in the ground, Usayd sat down, and Musab told him of Islam and recited the Koran. Then Usayd exclaimed, 'How beautiful and wonderful this is! What must one do to enter into this religion?' He was told, 'Wash yourself and purify your garments, then make profession of the truth, and pray.' Accordingly he rose, washed himself, purified his garments, made profession of the truth, and then prayed with two prayer flexions.

After that, Usayd said, 'Behind me there is another man. If he were to follow you, not one of his tribe would fail to do the same. I shall send him to you now. His name is Sad.' Then he took his sword and departed to Sad and his tribe, who were sitting in their assembly; when Sad saw him, he exclaimed, 'Usayd returns with a different countenance from that he departed with.

What have you done, Usayd?' He replied, I conversed with the two men, and I have seen no evil in them. I told them they must not stay and they said, "Do what you will."

Sad jumped up angrily and snatched the sword from Usayd's hand saying, 'By Allah! I think you have done nothing worth doing.” But when he approached the two men he realised that Usayd had merely enticed him there to hear what they had to say, so he stopped short and began to insult them. He said 'If we were not kinsmen, you would not have dared to insult us in our own homes.' Musab replied as he had done to At last, Sad asked, 'How does one make profession of Islam and enter into this religion.?' Musab and Asad told him, and he rose, washed himself, purified his garments, made profession of the truth, prayed on his knees, took up his sword and I with altered countenance to his people. He asked them, ‘What is my position among you?.' and they replied, 'You are our prince most loved, the most wise, and the most beneficent among us !’ He continued, 'It will not now be right for me to Any of you until you believe in Allah, and in his prophet.'

Thus, that evening, there was not a man nor a woman in the tribe who had not made profession of Islam.

Then Assad and Musab returned to their place and remained there, inviting the people to Islam till not a dwelling among all the tribes of the Helpers remained which did not include Muslim men and women, except only those few groups whose poet and leader was Sayfi. He was obeyed and followed by them and he kept them away from Islam until the apostle of Allah himself emigrated to Medina , and until the battles of Badr, Uhud, and the Ditch had been fought. 

While Musab and the Medina converts ‑ the Helpers (or Ansar) –were having considerable success at Medina , the apostle in Mecca fared no better than before. It was a period of waiting and watching. Muhammad  looked more and more eagerly to Medina and the north. The next vital part of the legend ‑ the 'night journey and ascension to heaven' ‑further reflects the way in which his creed, even in the twelfth year of his mission, remained associated in his mind with Jewish and Christian doctrine: he still regarded the Jews and Christians as possible allies against the idolaters.

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